Planks and Food

I did a lot of baking this week! I think it's mainly because my husband has been home on leave (vacation). Still, I'm sure my sugar intake must have been high this week although I do try to go with somewhat healthier recipes.  Okay, onto the food.

Cascadian Farms Fruity O's are flavoured with things like pumpkin and carrot! I loved Kellog's Fruit Loops as a kid so I wanted to try these. They are obviously not as sweet and the texture is different but they are yummy. Plus they don't cut up my gums like the Kellog's ones always did! And I think it's only 6g of sugar or so per serving. I only eat cereals with less than 10g, generally. Oh and I added strawberries to this.

Fresh orange juice.

Homemade artisan bread. I was really happy with how this turned out! It took 13+ hours though.

Yummy veggie sandwich using homemade bread. I use a George Forman grill to press my sandwiches.

Water and banana at the pool. We had some gorgeous weather this week! 80F! Then we had rain... weird.

I had to share this again. It it just frozen mango instead half of a mango skin. Sooo yummy! I love mangos.

Had some orange smoothies this week because I have a huge bag of oranges to get through (they seem to go moldy pretty fast). This one was water, strawberries, ground flax, oranges, ice and spinach.

Oh man, these were good. I picked up some Gardein chicken strips which are by far the best faux chicken I've had... well, these and the Trader Joes orange chickenless ones. I don't do faux meat regularly because they are so processed and there are healthier alternatives but now and then it's a great treat. I fried some corn shells, added spring greens, tomatoes, onions and a sauce made of Vegainaise, water and dill. 

Banana bites! I originally found these somewhere on Pinterest. It's easy. You just slice a banana, add some nut butter on top and freeze. The you roll them in melted chocolate and re-freeze. They are seriously delicious.

Whole wheat blueberry muffins. Yum! I love the texture that whole wheat pastry gives baked goods: I use it a lot. I used half maple syrup and half homemade date syrup to sweeten these and didn't add the struesal topping so these were somewhat healthier muffins.

Homemade almond butter! It's not raw because I chose to bake the almonds first. Then I just blended them in my food processor until they became creamy. I used one cup of almonds and then divided it in half. In the darker batch I added...chocolate chips! Oh man, so tasty. I got the almonds on sale (in bulk) so I think each  almond butter cost me around $2. I pay just over $4 for fresh organic almond butter but it's a larger serving. So I think I saved a bit and I know what exactly is in mine... no added salt!

Lasagna. Recipe to come!

Yeah, more muffins. We are still eating these ones. They are gingerbead flax muffins. I used less oil (and used EVOO not canola which I try to avoid) and more applesauce. I also only had half the amount of ginger. Why I didn't check to see how much ginger I had before making GINGERbread muffins is beyond me. haha Still, these are delicious! 

I ate a lot of oatmeal this week because of my 10K training program and the fact that I was running soon after breakfast. This one has added apples, cinnamon and homemade date syrup. The date syrup has definitely been my go to natural sweetener lately! Cheaper than pure maple syrup.

This looks better than it tasted but only because I think my leftover quinoa/falafel/hummus had been in my fridge for a bit too long. :( Still, these fiber flatbreads do work great for quesadillas. I'm really choosing to make more things from scratch so I can control the ingredients but I still find myself buying these and tortilla shells sometimes. Tortilla shells are easy to make but go bad quickly. Maybe I can try freezing them?

I made a big batch of black beans in my slow cooker! They last about a week in the fridge or six months frozen. They are much cheaper to buy in bulk and cook this way than to buy canned so I'm trying to do that. Plus there is no added salt.

I finally caved and bought a donut pan!! I think I kept putting it off because I know it wasn't a very health-friendly gadget to buy haha but then I decided I could also make bagels (I hate how store bought bagels have such a long ingredients list 99% of the time. I don't want all of that in my body! That is why I cook from scratch so much) but then I was looking at recipes and realized they are generally boiled and then baked. Hmm. I think I may try it anyway.  That said, these Chocolate Glazed Orange donuts are AMAZING. Seriously, this is probably one of the most delicious things I have ever made. I stuck to the recipe except added unsweetened shredded coconut on top instead of orange zest. I also made them smaller so I had 13, not 6. The citrus flavour is SO good especially with the chocolate on top. They are very flavourful and not grossly sweet like donuts tend to be. They are not light and fluffy but more dense since they are baked not fried.  Please make these!

 Does no one eat Cream of Wheat? I grew up loving it and still do. I made it this morning with almond pulp (leftover from making almond milk), banana and date syrup. Yum! Sure, it resembles baby food but it is tasty and healthy! 

 I also made my own almond milk for the first time! Silly me didn't take a picture before it was all gone but at least you can see how much I made. You have to plan ahead because the almonds need to soak for about 8 hours but other than that it's easy. I made it using a cheap blender and a nut milk bag I bought on Amazon so no VitaMix required. It was so tasty! It took me a minute to get used to because it is different than the ones you buy in store. It tastes much more like... well, almonds and water haha But I love it! It lasts just a few days in the fridge but I had no problem using it up in that time. I used an old large glass mayo jar to hold it which I think is 30oz.  Again, way fewer additives than the store bought stuff so I hope to make this on a regular basis. I buy almonds in bulk for, I think $4.99/lb (can't remember right now!) although they sometimes go on sale for $3.99/lb. 1lb = 3 1/3 cups. I only used one cup of almonds and my recipe made about the same amount as a small carton of store bought almond milk (like Almond Breeze). So mine cost me about half of what I would pay in store. Are you convinced yet? hehe

Let's talk about plans. I really love these. They are great for working many different muscle groups and you can build up how long you can hold the pose for as you start to find it easier.  

Basic plank:  Builds up your core strength as well as your back.  This can also help with pushups!

Reverse plank: It'll work your back, triceps, shoulders, core and quads!

Side planks: They help improve stability and tone your sides.